Sometimes a book goes temporarily out of print - and sometimes no audio version has ever been recorded. Audible wants to give you the most complete selection we can and we'll keep adding series and filling in gaps as quickly as possible.

Stonefather

When Runnel leaves his mountain valley to head for the great city of the water mages, he has no idea of his own magical talents. But he soon finds that without meaning to, he complicates and then endangers the lives of everyone he comes to know and care about. For when it comes to magic, there are rules and laws, and the untrained mage-to-be must be careful not to tap into deep forces and ancient enmities. Otherwise, other people might end up paying the price for his mistakes.

Familiar and unique--a breath of fresh air

Card shows here that he has continued to hone his writing skills long after success first claimed him. While there are bits and pieces in the text tha..Show More »t remind one strongly of the Alvin Maker series, the context is unique enough that it does not feel rehashed or redundant.

The story moves quickly and does not mire the reader in details. It is a light read, yet still manages to develop a couple of characters well enough to be engaging.

I was concerned as I neared the end of this book that the dangling loose ends would be left that way, given the small amount of time remaining to tie them. I was happily surprised to find that, while the resolution was brief, it was also comprehensive and did not feel hurried.

The narrator is expressive and pleasant to listen to. I only wish all of my money here on Audible was as well spent as on this book.

The Lost Gate: Mithermages, Book 1

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different - and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an "outself"....

Card doing what he does best.

While Orson Scott Card has already written any number of coming of age stories, he proves once again that he can breath new life into the subject. The..Show More » story is entertaining from start to finish and promises to jump start a dedicated series to OSC's Mithermage's world, instead of just the small snippets given in short stories and the novella Stonefather. I should admit here that I am a bit biased toward Card's work since he has been among my favorite authors since I read Ender's Game in High School. But the largest complaint that I have with Lost Gate is that I'll have to wait for the sequel.

The Gate Thief: Mithermages, Book 2

Here on Earth, Danny North is still in high school, yet he holds in his heart and mind all the stolen outselves of 13 centuries of gatemages. The Families still want to kill him if they can’t control him - and they can’t control him; he is far too powerful. On Westil, Wad is now nearly powerless - he lost everything to Danny in their struggle. Even if he can survive the revenge of his enemies, he must still somehow make peace with the Gatemage Daniel North, for when Danny took that power from Loki, he also took responsibility for the Great Gates.

Flashes of Great, Ok, and Bad. Overall: Meh.

What I liked:

Card manages to put together a fairly interesting structure of magic and how that creates the major conflict that drives the st..Show More »ory. His exploration of the way magic works and the way that the characters discover it is quite interesting. His take on ancient pantheons as magic-wielding aliens come to earth is also insightful, forcing the reader to completely shift her thinking. The reader encounters plenty of unexpected actions and circumstances and that is all to the good. The book is unpredictable and that is enough to keep you listening.

The Ok:

The main character, Danny, is a retooling of the "super-powered teenager trying to lead a normal life" (as in My Secret Identity, Smallville, etc.) genre. Which goes ok, maybe even a little bit better than average with Danny's well-developed intellect, but complete ignorance of actual teenage interaction making for very appropriate awkwardness. Unfortunately, the high school friends he interacts with feel like they're made of cardboard. They seem developed only just enough that the story can move forward.

Also Wad's story line of protecting his world from incoming mages and looking for a way to get revenge on his former lover is not bad. Not great, but not bad; interesting, but haphazard. It's one notch above only existing to be the reflection of Danny's own magical discovery.

If the following things bother you, steer clear:

Rudniki should not be narrating this book. He has a less than versatile deep bass voice. This isn't particularly ideal for a coming of age novel where many of the characters are youths. Not to say that his voice is not pleasant, he just doesn't have the range to characterize teenagers and women. Rankin has a better range, but doesn't make bold characterizations.

This book bogs down around the various characters' banter. It is not witty, insightful, or entertaining. It will make you want to skip portions.

Some of the book's portrayal of teenagers is dissonant. I am not an expert on teenagers, and maybe some do think and talk the way they do in the book, but there are some things I think are a bit too out there. A teenage girl being loaded up on hormones, emotional and desirous of sex, I get. But one that needs her boyfriend's seed in her uterus and expresses it to him in those terms? The girls in the book are generally focused on procreation. Every time it comes up (often enough) you think, "seriously?"

Gatefather: The Mithermages, Book 3

Danny North is the first Gate Mage to be born on Earth in nearly 2,000 years, or at least the first to survive and claim his power, for families of Westil in exile on Earth have a treaty that requires the death of any suspected Gate Mage. The wars between the families had been terrible until at last they realized it was their own survival in question.

Cheap Ending

I was hoping the ending to the trilogy would flabbergasting, yet it was an utter disappointment. The Author wrote and extraordinary tale so detailed ..Show More »and entangled; the plot and the climax were abosultely complex and amazing, but it seems he wrote more than he could digest. Sudden mediocre endings to unfinished entaglements is out right atriscious.